Swinestein for Senate!

[nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)]

ACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Sen. Dianne Feinstein ruled out a race for the
Democratic nomination for governor Tuesday, saying she didn't want to
enter "a very debilitating campaign environment."
	Feinstein's decision came less than two weeks after President
Clinton personally urged her to enter the race. That call followed pleas
by Democratic members of Congress and the state Legislature to run.
	"I made the decision definitely last week," she told reporters in
a telephone conference. "It was like a huge weight that came off my
shoulders."
	"It's a long story. There probably has been no decision in my life
... that I have put more thought and energy into. There also has been none
that has caused me more angst," Feinstein said.
	"The decision moment came in a way ... in the conversation with
the president ... I thought if any call were to push me over the brink, it
would be a call from the president of the United States."
	Feinstein said it was during that conversation that "I realized my
ambivalence," she said.
	Feinstein, who had been weighing a race for the Democratic
nomination for months, said she could serve the people of California
better in the U.S. Senate.

Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, can't run again this year because of term
limits. The leading Republican candidate is Attorney General Dan Lungren.
	Other Democrats considering running are Lt. Gov. Gray Davis,
businessman Al Checchi and state Senator John Vasconcellos.
	Feinstein, 64, lost a close race for governor in 1990 to Wilson.
She was elected to the remaining two years of Wilson's Senate term in
1992, defeating his appointed successor, and ran again in 1994 to win a
full six-year term.